Commentary on transportation in Connecticut and the Northeast by JIM CAMERON, for 19 years a member of the CT Rail Commuter Council.
Jim is also the founder of a new advocacy effort: www.CommuterActionGroup.org
Disclaimer: his comments are only his own. All contents of this blog are (c) Cameron Communications Inc

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June 23, 2015

Cruising along on the
Merritt Parkway awhile back I was struck by its natural beauty, unique bridges
and amazing landscaping.But until I did
some research, I didn’t appreciate its history.

A hundred years ago the only
way to drive
between New York and Boston was on Route 1, The Post Road.If you think traffic is bad today, imagine
that journey!So in 1936, two thousand
men began work on the state’s largest public works project, the $21 million
four lane parkway starting in Greenwich and running to the Housatonic River in
Stratford. The adjoining Wilbur
Cross Parkway didn’t open until years later when the Sikorsky
Bridge across the Housatonic was completed.

As the Merritt was being
planned, a major real estate scandal caught Darien real estate agent G Leroy
Kemp in cahoots with two brokers as they paid inflated prices for land for the
parkway and split the proceeds.

The Merritt, named after
Stamford resident, Congressman Schuyler Merritt, is best known for its natural
beauty, though most of it was planted:22,000 trees and 40,000 shrubs.And then there are the bridges, since 1991 protected on the National
Register of Historic Places.

Architect George
Dunkleberger designed 69
bridges in a variety of architectural styles, from Art Moderne
to Deco to Rustic.Their adornments were
better appreciated when cars were

poking along at half of today’s speeds, but
they are still beautiful. No two bridges are exactly alike.In short order the Merritt was being hailed
as “The
Queen of Parkways”.

The parkway at first had
tolls, a dime (later 35 cents) at each of three barriers, not to pay for the
parkway’s upkeep but to finance its extension to Hartford via the Wilbur Cross
Parkway, named after Wilbur Lucius Cross who was Governor in the 1930’s.Tolls were dropped in 1988.

The old
toll booths themselves were as unique as the Parkway, constructed
of wooden beams and covered in shingles.One of the original booths is now preserved in Stratford at the Boothe
Memorial Park.

The Merritt’s right of way
is a half-mile wide, the vistas more obvious now since massive tree clearing
after the two storms in 2011 and 2012 where downed trees pretty much closed the
highway.

Since its design and opening
in 1938 the Merritt Parkway has been off-limits to commercial vehicles and
trucks.But as traffic worsens on I-95,
debates rage from time to time about allowing trucks on the Merritt and
possibly widening the road.Either move
would probably mean demolition of the Parkway’s historic bridges, so don’t
expect such expansion anytime soon.

The best watchdog of the
Parkway is the Merritt
Parkway Conservancy which has fought to preserve the road’s
unique character.Their latest battle is
against plans for a multi-use trail along the south side of the roadway.
Costing an estimated $6.6
million per mile, the Conservancy worries that the trees and
foliage that would be clear-cut to allow bike and pedestrian users would
despoil the eco-system.

June 07, 2015

As someone who has battled
two decades for more spending on transportation, you’d think I would be happy
with the state’s new biennial budget. But when you drill down into the details,
there’s reason for concern.

That must have come as a
surprise to his recently appointed Transportation
Funding Task Force which is just getting started.Why have a task force when you’re playing a
shell game with transportation funds?

Not kept was the Governor’s promise
for a “lock box” on the Special Transportation Fund.Nor did he keep his promise to not raise
taxes, having the chutzpah to blame the legislature for that when it was very
clear that the budget’s new taxes were negotiated by his team with his
blessing.As the Governor signs the new
budget into law, he owns those hikes and broken promises.

Any budget that narrowly passes
the House 73-70 and the Senate 19-17 in an “emergency
vote” without debate bears closer scrutiny, especially in a state
with one party so clearly in control.

CT-N’s coverage of the
marathon two-day final session showed lawmakers who were deliberately sleep
deprived, kept at their desks all night

debating measure after
measure until they were exhausted.Sleep
deprivation is a great interrogation technique for terrorists but no way to
pass new laws.

I am told that Democrats who
did not toe the party line on this budget and threatened to vote “no”, were
told to “go home” rather than cast a negative ballot.Indeed, in the final House tally eight
lawmakers did not vote, some because they were said to be “sick”, others
because they were “absent on other business”.What legislator misses the final ballot on a two year, $40 billion
budget that passes by a single vote?

So divisive was the final debate,
the Governor didn’t even have the guts to speak to lawmakers after the budget
session ended, a long-standing tradition.

I have respect for the
office of Governor, but also believe strongly in open, transparent government
“of the people, by the people”.Beware
the tyranny of any one party when majority power is so brazenly wielded and the
public is ignored.Governor Malloy did
deliver on his promise to start funding long-neglected transportation
projects.I just disagree with the way
he did it.

Keep your eyes on the prize
but embrace the process.Whatever good
came out of this year’s budget process, those ends did not justify the means.

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Former NBC News director and anchor, now a professional communications consultant, JIM CAMERON leads workshops on media training, speech and presentations skills and preps clients for analyst briefings and legislative testimony.
Jim served for 19 years on the CT Metro-North Rail Commuter Council, is an elected member of the Darien Representative Town Meeting (RTM) and is Program Director of Darien TV79, his town's government TV station.